RTS DEBATE US INWARD INVESTMENT


Save Me Too (World Productions for Sky Atlantic)


Britannia (Neal Street, Vertigo Films for Sky Atlantic)


overdue recalibration in the marketplace now. I think that’s what’s happened with the proliferation of Indies. Everybody thought they could flip their company within three years. And then set up again and flip it again. That is running out of steam. We’ve got into a mindset where a producer feels they can only maximise the cultural, editorial and commercial value of the marketplace if they own their own indie. The fact is that quite a lot of producers are terrible at running businesses, but they’re brilliant at making shows. Not everybody wants to be ordering the loo paper and stationery, and everything else that comes with running an indie. Owning your own company isn’t the only way. Going to a large company like Sony or Sky or the BBC, and getting an inhouse deal, which also enables you to do third party shows, could be exactly what you want.


JB: Why is the strength of our PSB model so important to our future?


Sex Education (Eleven Films for Netflix)


JM: I’m a big supporter of the BBC and the licence fee. That’s my personal view. At Sky, we have benefited extraordinarily from the PSB tradition because we have been able to work with the best talent that has been nurtured.


White Lines (Left Bank for Netflix)


WG: It is important. We’ve got a unique ecology in the UK, which underpins why we’ve been so successful in scripted and unscripted content around the world. I worry that we are in danger of throwing out public service broadcasting for extraordinarily short sighted


20 televisual.com Spring 2021


reasons. A minority of people somehow get more airtime, newspaper time to put their case than they deserve. That will undermine public service broadcasting, and eventually, our ecosystem.


JB: What is it about the UK that is attractive from a US perspective?


ROGER MORRIS: Inward investment now is driven by tax incentives, and long may that last. Obviously other countries are catching up. You’ve got great tax incentives, for instance, in Hungary, and elsewhere. We have to stay on our toes if we wish to keep this sort business.


SEE THA KUMAR: I would say it’s the triple pillars of the tax incentives, studios and locations, and then, the workforce. For decades, our creativity in front of and behind the camera has been lauded globally, and has attracted US blockbusters and high-end TV. And then of course, it’s the English language too.


RM: Yes, one of the reasons why the Americans like working here is the language. The dollar-pound relationship is also very, very important. There’s the shopping too! I had one client who wanted to know how far it was to Harvey Nicks. Bear in mind that when top stars come into the UK, they have to be looked after – and they find the UK a great place to work. And by the UK, I mean all four nations. I don’t just mean England.


JB: Also relevant is what happens down the road from


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